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Constitutional framework
As delineated in Indiana’s constitution of 1851, which has been amended a number of times since its promulgation, Indiana’s government (like that of most other states) is divided into executive, legislative, and judicial branches. However, while the chief executive—the governor—has veto power over legislation, the veto can be overridden by a simple majority of the two houses. The authority of Indiana’s governor is wielded largely through executive power to appoint and remove heads of nearly all departments, commissions, and governing boards of institutions. The governor is elected for a four-year period and can serve no more than two terms in a 12-year period. Thus, gubernatorial influence on the legislature—the General Assembly—is often weak during the second half of an administration.
The General Assembly is bicameral, consisting of the Senate as its upper house and the House of Representatives as its lower house. The assembly includes no more than 50 senators, serving four-year terms, and no more than 100 representatives, serving for two years. They may be reelected, but there is often a high turnover. In 1970 the voters approved annual sessions for the two bodies. The state constitution requires that the legislature reapportion itself according to population every six years. This law was ignored, however, from 1923 to 1963, during which time the rural areas exerted an influence far out of proportion to their declining population. Under pressure from the U.S. Supreme Court, the state eventually achieved a reapportionment based on the “one man, one vote” principle in 1965.
Indiana’s judiciary is headed by the state Supreme Court. Although the Supreme Court has long had just five judges, the state constitution allows for as many as nine. The justices are appointed by the governor and a judicial nominating commission after a screening procedure. A new judge serves for two years and then, if retained, for a term of 10 years. The Court of Appeals consists of as many geographic divisions as is deemed necessary by the General Assembly; in the early 21st century that number was five. Each division has three appellate judges. There are also circuit, superior, municipal, and county courts.
The four principal levels of local government are the county, township, city or town, and school district. Townships can serve a dual capacity as school and civil townships, but overall their importance has been greatly reduced; welfare is now the primary function of townships. Boards of county commissioners have executive and legislative powers, while county councils are concerned almost exclusively with fiscal affairs. City voters elect a mayor and common council.
Indiana is a two-party state, the Republicans having held a slight advantage since the last quarter of the 19th century, especially in the General Assembly and in presidential voting. At the national level the state can claim one president, Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of William Henry Harrison, and five vice presidents. In 1940 the Indiana native son Wendell L. Willkie was the Republican candidate for president. In presidential elections the state has tilted heavily toward the Republican Party. In 2008, however, after having won the state in every presidential election since 1968, the Republicans lost Indiana to the Democratic candidate.
Health and welfare
In the early 21st century, Indiana ranked relatively high nationally in the amount of assistance granted to public hospitals. Public welfare programs, however, were not as strongly supported. Indeed, the state ranks notably below the national average in per capita expenditure for public welfare and number of recipients of general assistance.
Education
The state’s educational system is headed by a board of education and a superintendent of public instruction. Compared with other states, Indiana ranks about average in outlay per pupil, although it spends a significant portion of its general revenue on education. The academic standards of the state’s elementary and secondary schools are among the top in the country, but in terms of overall student achievement at these grade levels the schools rank about average. Indiana also ranks about average in its overall high school graduation rate.
Although in the early 21st century Indiana still had one of the lowest percentages of residents with at least a bachelor’s degree, the state had nevertheless made notable achievements in higher education. The three leading universities of the state are Indiana University, in Bloomington; Purdue University, in West Lafayette; and the University of Notre Dame, near South Bend. Indiana University, founded in 1820, has become noted for its work in several fields, including English, foreign languages, biology, medicine, and law. The university’s School of Music is internationally recognized; among the most prominent of its performance series are works staged annually by the Opera Theater. Purdue University, established in 1869 as a land-grant college, is one of the country’s leading engineering and agricultural schools. The University of Notre Dame, dating from 1842, is widely regarded as the leading Roman Catholic university of the United States. The institution has a strong graduate faculty, and it also has long excelled in athletics. Originally a men’s school, Notre Dame in 1972 began enrolling women from St. Mary’s College, also located near South Bend.
Other prominent institutions include the Mennonite liberal arts institution Goshen College, established in 1894, and Valparaiso University, founded in 1879, which is associated with the Lutheran church. In addition to Indiana University, notable public universities include Indiana State University, created by law in Terre Haute in 1865, and Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), which is Indiana’s major urban university campus. IUPUI was founded in 1969 as a collaboration between Indiana and Purdue universities; the institution is managed by Indiana University. IUPUI began to show especially rapid growth in the 1980s, and by the early 21st century it had become one of the state’s largest universities in terms of student enrollment.